ITEC 8510 Reflective Journal 2
The readings this week discussed topics that I have been interested in for a while now. Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an instructional strategy that I want to try in my own classroom, but struggle with how that would look in practice as I teach AP US History. I have a couple of topics that I incorporate PBL into, and I would like to see that increase. According to Vega (2015), PBL engages students in critical thinking, collaboration, and develop real-world problem-solving skills. I agree with the impact that it has on students and how impactful this strategy is with students because I have experienced it with my own projects. I have students portray a Progressive Era reform movement with actual members from the time period that each student will become during the presentation day. They have to research their movement, explain why people should join it, and create a booth that students will visit. On the presentation day, they have to convince others to join their movement by explaining their person and the movement as they walk around and visit everyone’s booth. After the event, students then have a reflection piece where they see how their movement changed over time and connect it to the present. I consider this PBL, and I would welcome any suggestions as to how I can incorporate this more. Another instructional strategy I have considered is Personalized Learning (PL). Steiner et al. (2020) explained that PL practices include “personalized instructional practice,” “mastery-based practice,” and “social and emotional learning practice” and develops the whole student to help them for life beyond high school (p. 3). This is something that I would like to focus on more with my students to help them navigate through more personalized learning. What are some ways you incorporate this into your classroom? Figure 7 in Steiner et al. (2020) was one data set I found intriguing as it asked, “How Often Do Teachers Receive Student Performance Data?” (p. 10). Most responses stated that they receive feedback “One or a few times per year” (Steiner et al., 2020, p. 10). I was surprised by this response. While I may not have specific data weekly, I am able to gauge my students understanding through formative and summative assessments, which are standards-based within a month. From there I can create personalized learning opportunities; however, this is where I struggle with creating that for each individual student and would agree with Steiner et al. (2020) that teachers need more professional development on how to best incorporate this into the classroom (p. 13). One way my high school is creating more personalized learning is through a graduation coach who is working with at-risk students to help them be successful in high school. This position is new this year. While she helps everyone, the focus this year has been the freshmen class. She analyzes the new class coming in to identify student who scored low on the standardized tests and in the classroom. From there, she starts meeting with them to create learning plans for them to keep them on track to graduate. She creates a rapport with these students and supports them through a holistic approach. The graduation coach does help with at-risk 10th-12th grade students to do the same, but most of these students are playing catch-up. With the freshmen class, it can be more of a proactive approach, which I can see the long-term benefits of that. I will be curious as to how this will work over the course of the next few years. What would PL look like in a classroom where a teacher teaches 130 students? Kirschner and Hendrick (2020) further discuss instructional strategies and have a different perspective to say that “minimally guided instruction” does not necessarily mean that students will perform better in the classroom through an inquiry or constructivist method (p. 168). While I do believe there is some merit through inquiry-based learning, I do find that the implications discussed play into my hesitations of using this often with students without significant scaffolding. The article shows that teachers need to be mindful of “cognitive load theory” and learning tasks (Kirschner & Hendrick, 2020, p. 169). Another point that Kirschner and Hendrick makes is that the “medium is not the message,” which explains that a medium is a vehicle and it does not have much impact on learning, but instead, the instructional method is where the difference is made (p. 290). I completely agree with this viewpoint. In my early years of teaching, I used an assortment of technology tools with my students, but I quickly realized that I was just using technology for the sake of using technology. This did not help the students and since then I have continued to improve my instructional methods and have found tools that best meet the needs of the learners. Consortium for School Networking (COSN) analyzed hurdles, accelerators, and technology enablers in a world after the COVID-19 pandemic, which is what they attribute as the drive for K-12 innovation. COSN (2022) stated that a hurdle is “attracting and retaining educators and IT professionals” (p.14). This is something that I have experienced in my teaching experience. I serve on the Governor’s School Leadership Academy (GLSA) where they meet monthly and focus on teacher retention and how to best serve the teachers in the district. These monthly meetings cover a variety of topics and have guests speakers to provide resources to utilize in the field. As part of this process COSN (2022) suggested that in order to assist with this schools need to “consider a growth path for staff,” “create a positive organizational culture,” and “have a technology plan” (p. 15). I plan to take this information back to my district and GLSA to discuss plans to help with this. While I read this article, I questioned what the best plan of action would be to address the retention in a school or district? Would a committee need to be formed that focused on this or would it be more administration at each school that worked with the teachers? After looking at these instructional models, I believe that the district could benefit from both PL and PBL. I can see the benefits of these instructional strategies and developing students’ skills and academic knowledge. Both methods have their place in the classroom to develop the whole student and prepare them for life beyond high school. The district’s learning management system (LMS) is Canvas. It has the capability to have mastery learning complete with mastery paths and a new function called Mastery Connect. These allow for standards-based assessment and give more opportunities for personalized learning. These are promising resources for teachers to use and will come with some learning curves but should provide teachers with the ability to track and keep student data to show their progress through the year. Project-based learning is another tool that needs to make its way into the classroom more. I see the impact that this instructional strategy has given my students and would like to extend this opportunity to all students. Some teachers are hesitant to implement PBL because they do not see that their students are capable of executing these tasks; however, with proper support and scaffolding it is possible. In both instances, teachers will need adequate support, professional development, and coaching to benefit the most. References Consortium for School Networking. (2022). Driving K-12 innovation: 2022 hurdles and accelerators. Kirschner, P. A., & Hendrick, C. (2020). How learning happens: Seminal works in educational psychology and what they mean in practice. Routledge. Steiner, E. D., Doss, C. J., & Hamilton, L. S. (2020). High school teachers’ perceptions and use of personalized learning: Findings from the American Teacher Panel. RAND Corporation. https://doi.org/10.7249/RRA322-1 Vega, V. (2015, December 1). Project-based learning research review. Edutopia. http://www.edutopia.org/pbl-research-learning-outcomes
0 Comments
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2024
Categories |